Geographical Distribution of Insanity 



373 



ize them. By clothing and improved 

 shelter man habituates himself to al- 

 most any climate, and by sanitary 

 knowledge he makes places formerly 

 uninhabitable safe for human life. In 

 pursuit of wealth, of political independ- 

 ence, of religious freedom, he will risk 

 exposures which would seem to be en- 

 tirely unnecessar}'. By improved meth- 

 ods of agriculture man often renders 

 districts formerly uninhabited, or at 

 best only sparse^ settled, capable of 

 sustaining large populations. In early 

 times regions covered with forests are 

 thinly inhabited. Civilized man cuts 

 down the forests and turns the land into 

 arable fields. Lowlands, which in early 

 times were at the mercy of the sea or 

 uninhabitable on account of fevers, civ- 

 ilized man, by canals and dikes, renders 

 fertile plains. So also by means of 

 fertilizers, by rotation of crops, by im- 

 proved ploughing, by the use of ma- 

 chinery, sometimes by irrigation, dry 

 and sterile plains are made productive. 

 Even from year to year changes in ag- 

 riculture or in the prices of agricultural 

 crops may render it expedient to change 

 arable land into pasture, or pasture land 

 into arable, and either process, if con- 

 tinued, must influence the population- 

 supporting capacity of the country. An 

 example of this is seen in the changing 

 of arable land to pasture in Ireland and 

 the turning of little farms into game 

 preserves in Scotland. 



"In the civilized state man often makes 

 use of a country without any reference 

 to its agricultural capacities. He seeks 

 the minerals under the soil either for 

 his own consumption or for export; he 

 turns clay into pottery ; he utilizes 

 water power for his factories; he seeks 

 barren coasts for fishing or gathering 

 sea weed ; he establishes trading posts 

 in the desert or in unhealthy localities — 

 in other words, he seeks his gain with- 

 out reference to climate or soil. In 

 modern times the improved means of 

 transportation have still further in- 



creased man's command over nature. 

 He is no longer held to rivers and valleys 

 as natural highways, but can seek the 

 quickest and most direct route. Cheap- 

 ness of transportation gives him com- 

 mand over the resources of the world. 

 In this way he can carry on the work 

 of production in any place he likes, 

 without regard to its food-producing 

 capacity. The people of England im- 

 port three-fourths of the bread they eat. 

 Thishas the effect of enabling man to con- 

 centrate his efforts in places most favor- 

 able to the production of the kind of 

 wealth which is demanded. It enables 

 him also to choose climates favorable to 

 his health, as the English seek the Med- 

 iterranean, or consumptives of the East 

 seek the dry air of Colorado. Man's 

 intellectual and emotional desires lead 

 him to seek large cities, and this he is 

 enabled to do by the fact that he can 

 carry on his occupation independent of 

 the food supply. This is especially true 

 of occupations demanding intellectual 

 effort. 



" It will be seen, therefore, from all 

 these considerations, that man is still 

 subject to the environment; but the de- 

 velopment of his power over nature 

 has rendered the cord which binds him 

 down more elastic. He is still subject 

 to nature, but has at the same time, to a 

 certain extent at least, subjected her." 



Thus far my lecture has dealt with — 



First. The untenability of any hy- 

 pothesis founded solely upon climatic, 

 meteorologic, or topographic conditions 

 to explain the facts of the distribution 

 of insanity in the United States. 



Second. The necessity of assuming 

 primarily a mental cause to explain 

 these facts and the nature of that cause, 

 viz. , the mental stresses incident to the 

 progressive civilized state. 



Now, as a Third line of argument I 

 will take up the discussion of certain 

 collateral evidence — that is, evidence 

 taken along other but related lines and 

 leading to the same conclusion. 



